I Am A Long Way

I am a long way from where I want to be. It is hard to dust off ten years of really not working hard or racing. Ten years of LT and AT and never stringing together a racing season. I know this was by choice. I figure it will take me at least a year to get back to where I am competitive in my age group. Competitive for me is the 19's for 5K.

I also recognize that I am no longer at the age where I get faster. Not like my 20's and 30's.

What do I need to do:

Run more miles. Not more days. I figure at least 35-40 miles per week. This will be a sizeable improvement on my present 25-30 miles per week. I can do this in 4 days if I run doubles.

Something like this:

Monday: 10-12 miles in two runs
Wednesday: Same as Monday but with some sort of interval or rep workout
Friday: 5-6 miles
Saturday: 3-4 mile AT one week, 10-12 miles the next week.


Run an every other week longer run. 8-9 miles isn't enough. I need to go to 12 miles. It will help me carry my speed through to longer events.

Alternate true AT runs (85-90% of max) with the long runs on weeks when I am not racing.

Do two types of faster work. When I am in the pre-racing season phase (generally mid-winter, early spring) run VO2 max workouts but once I am racing, run less reps, faster on weeks I am not racing.

Race more during the Spring and Summer and very early fall. Then rebuild.

Not be working full time. Right now I am interim VP of HR at a company. I need to find the person who backfills my role so I have more flexibility to train. Nice money but it is going on wasy too long. If it goes into May, I will go to 4 days a week.

I hate this last one but I wonder if I would race better in the low 130's versus the high 130/l;ow 140's I presently weigh. I will have to decide if I want to gradually lose weight.